I am currently writing my thesis for a MSc in computer science. In some places I came up with short but crucial explanations or remarks that I wanted to show in a stand-out display to emphasize their importance.

So I show a little grey text box, with a title. As for now I chose Nota Bene as the title — see an example here:

Nota Bene: If the dashed lines in the interface-graph (cf. Figure 7.2, on the right) are not explicitly included, a VPN network will essentially be represented by several disconnected graphs.

Now I am wondering if nota bene is something that I can use in this context. I know that is has the right meaning but I am unsure about the style. Does this feel pompous to you? Or old-fashioned?

Thx for the quick answers. I changed all Nota-Bene's to the abbreviated form. I guess I was kind of unsure about the entire thing because `nota bene' is actually a phrase that is used in spoken dialect (Swiss German) from time to time...
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fgysinFeb 7 '13 at 9:59

6

A far more comfortable option would be to just say "Note:". Most readers would appreciate it.
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KrisFeb 7 '13 at 10:31

1

"Nota bene" is a phrase used in English from time to time too, but not that often. As with what was said below, some people would understand it, but some would not.
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Jon HannaFeb 20 '13 at 15:00

I have usually seen it written N.B.: and not just NB. That said, even with the abbreviation I have sometimes found the people I was writing to had no idea what I meant.
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emodendroketJun 4 '14 at 18:31